CityView Magazine

giving Mending Minds I Two national organizations work to meet local mental health needs BY KELLY TWEDELL n 2005 Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen, a psychologist in Washington, DC, realized that the mental health needs of our nation's service members and their families were growing exponentially and there simply were not enough providers in the military system to meet the needs. She had an idea: Mobilize mental health providers from the civilian sector to help the military community. Her organization, called Give an Hour, was born. Providers who volunteer with Give an Hour agree to give one hour of their time each week to provide free counseling and other mental health services to military members, veterans and military family mem- bers. The providers assist these clients with needs related to the psychological effects of deployment, combat and reintegration into society aſter serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the group was founded seven years ago, more than 5,600 volunteers have donated nearly 37,000 hours. "In our community, the Give an Hour organization came to be in January 2011 with an estimate of 80 individuals, and a core working group of around 20 people," Nancy St. Claire, the chief operating officer for Give an Hour, said of Fayetteville. Later, in June 2011, Bristol-Myers Squibb approached Give an Hour to offer $2 mil- lion to implement the Community Blue- print Network, a nationwide initiative, in the two pilot sites, Fayetteville and the Norfolk, Va. area. The Community Blueprint Network, which now oversees Give an Hour's efforts, developed to help local community leaders assess and improve their community's support for veterans, service members and their families. By better synchronizing and coordinating services between government, nonprofits and other stake- holders, the Community Blueprint improves services across A Blueprint for Helping CityViewNC.com | 33

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